Category: Mobile apps

It was the middle of the second world war, Europe was under siege and while the allied forces were able to intercept radio traffic communication, they could not make any sense of the information, since it was encrypted. Germany had developed an ingenious device, called the Enigma, which allowed for millions of possible encryption combinations. Being able to decrypt that communication would no doubt be of tremendous value to the allied forces. One day, a man stepped into the offices of Britain’s code breaking centre at Bletchley park, claiming he would be able to build a machine that could decrypt the enemy’s communication. It was Alan Turing, a mathematician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist.

In his research, Alan Turing laid the foundation of modern information technology and software development. Especially nowadays, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the Turing test is a widely spread concept to test if an implementation of AI is as intelligent as a human. But Alan Turing did a lot more than that. He also described what we now call the Turing Machine, the simplest possible implementation of a computer. A Turing Machine — Alan Turing never actually built one, but others have — consists of a reader capable of reading zeros and ones on a long band of paper. The machine has a memory and it can change directions (reading from left to right and back) based on the instructions (the bits on the paper roll) that it reads. Long story short, Alan Turing mathematically proved that this machine is theoretically capable of executing (almost) any algorithm, or what we now call a “program”.

What does this really mean ? It means that Alan Turing — remember, this is before modern computers actually existed — proved that software would be capable of doing all the things we need it to do, and that all these things can be broken up into smaller pieces until you end up with a program, written down as ones and zeros, on a very very long sheet of paper.

And that’s essentially what the whole IT world did. We built computers, that still today work with ones and zero’s inside their chips. These bits are combined to make characters, characters become instructions and instructions become a computer program that we compile into an application.

One of the biggest challenges that event planners face as a whole today is how to personalize the event experience for delegates. The goal of most events is to provide relevant content to each individual, and to make sure they walk away with one or more key messages. The more relevance you can provide and the more personalized your communication is, the more chances you have of achieving that goal.

You are probably familiar with marketing automation, but do you know what it means to add mobile to the equation, and why some of us – myself included – think it’s such a big deal? With “mobile” I mean of course smartphones and tablets, those precious devices that our customers – always connected consumers – can no longer live without. With mobile as a communication channel, we are able to send context-aware messages at the right place and time.

If we haven’t said it enough, the era of mobile marketing is among us! At this point, mobile apps are becoming a must-have in every marketing plan. The way mobile apps enable marketers to reach their marketing goals is rapidly evolving, and we are seeing major shifts in mobile marketing tactics this year.

Here are 5 emerging mobile marketing trends for you to take advantage of now.

Most mobile apps require a backend infrastructure, e.g. to retrieve data, manage app content or to send push notifications to app users. You can either build your own backend in the cloud, or you can choose for a hosted mBaaS (mobile backend as a service) solution. Either way, it is difficult to calculate the overall cost, since it typically depends on number of app users, but also number of requests etc. That’s why I have crafted a backend cost calculator, that I am happy to share with you.

If you’re thinking about creating a mobile app for your business or your brand, you aren’t alone. In today’s connected world, we use smartphones and tablets in all aspects of our lives: at home, at work, when shopping, and more. Creating a mobile app is a unique opportunity to communicate with your audience in a personalized, relevant, and interactive manner. And if current trends in mobile continue, mobile will soon be the preferred communication channel for your customers, partners, employees, and prospects.

So you’re thinking about publishing a mobile app around your business, your brand or your organization ? That’s great ! In today’s connected world, we use smartphones and tablets in all aspects of our life: we use mobile devices at home, at work, when shopping etc. A mobile app is a unique opportunity to communicate with your audience in a personalized, relevant and interactive manner. And soon, mobile will be the preferred communication channel for your customers, partners, employees, prospects, fans, members or who ever it is that you want to interact with.

As part of your overall marketing efforts, you’ve probably had to organize an event, such as a conference or a seminar. Events are unique opportunities to meet new people and get new leads, but they also allow you to capture product interests from visiting prospects.

Obviously, hosting an event is a major investment of time and resources, and it can be a challenge to get the highest return on your investment. You have a limited period of time to talk with as many people as possible, and the chances are that you’ll end up missing out on a lot of valuable lead information. So, until cloning yourself becomes a viable option, a mobile app for your event might be the perfect solution.

Without any doubt, we are in exciting times when it comes to online marketing. In a few years time, marketing managers have seen the shift from classic display advertising such as banners, to targeted campaigns based on user segments. But it did not stop there, behavioral targeting, real-time bidding (RTB) and other new technologies have opened up unique opportunities to reach customers online.Continue reading

Only a few years ago, online marketing was relatively easy. Getting a website up and running, buying a few ads on search engines, reading a book or two on SEO, and the job was more or less done. And then, in the blink of an eye, the online landscape changed dramatically. Consumers started using social media, building a social graph and bringing their everyday lives online. And at the same time, new devices were massively adopted such as smartphones and tablets, allowing users to go online wherever they are.